A devastating collision between a high-speed passenger train and a herd of wild Asiatic elephants has claimed the lives of seven animals and injured a young calf in the northeastern state of Assam.
The incident occurred early Saturday morning as the Rajdhani Express, a premier long-distance service, was en route from Sairang in Mizoram to the nation’s capital, New Delhi. The train was carrying approximately 650 passengers when it encountered a significant herd of roughly 100 elephants traversing the railway tracks.
According to Indian Railways, the driver attempted to avert the disaster by applying emergency brakes immediately upon spotting the herd. However, the momentum of the express service made a collision unavoidable.
The force of the impact was so severe that it caused the locomotive engine and five subsequent coaches to derail. Remarkably, despite the mechanical damage, none of the 650 passengers on board sustained injuries.
Kapinjal Kishore Sharma, a spokesman for Indian Railways, confirmed the logistical response to the accident. “We delinked the coaches which remained on the tracks, allowing the main body of the train to resume its journey to New Delhi,” Mr Sharma stated. He added that approximately 200 passengers from the derailed carriages were transferred to Guwahati via a secondary service to continue their travels.
The loss of seven adult elephants and the injury of a calf represents a significant blow to the local population of Asiatic elephants, a species classified as endangered. It is estimated that only 30,000 to 50,000 of these creatures remain in the wild globally.
On Saturday afternoon, veterinary surgeons conducted necropsies on the deceased animals before they were interred near the site of the accident.
Assam remains a critical stronghold for the species, home to an estimated 7,000 wild elephants. However, the intersection of expanding infrastructure and ancient migratory paths continues to prove lethal. This latest tragedy adds to a grim tally; since 2020, at least a dozen elephants have perished on the state’s railway lines.
While the Rajdhani Express has since continued its passage to New Delhi, the incident has renewed calls from conservationists for more stringent speed restrictions and the implementation of advanced early-warning systems in known elephant corridors to prevent further loss of India’s natural heritage.
